Dawson gets second straight moguls win; Vogtli third in women's event

Dawson gets second straight moguls win; Vogtli third in women’s event{mosimage}USSA — Toby Dawson nailed two huge jumps Saturday to win a World Cup moguls event at Inawashiro, Japan — his second straight victory — with Jeremy Bloom finishing third as five U.S. men packed into finals.

Austrian Margaret Marbler won the women’s contest with Jillian Vogtli third and four U.S. women in finals.

Dawson, who won the moguls event January 30 during the World Cup at Deer Valley, Utah, had 25.45 points and was followed by Canadian Jim Schiman in second (24.22) and Bloom in third with 24.11. Luke Westerlund was fourth, Nate Roberts 10th and Dave Babic 12th for the U.S.

In the women’s competition at this resort about 150 miles north of Tokyo, Marbler, with 25.24 points, edged World Cup leader Jenn Heil (25.16) of Canada with Vogtli (24.51) completing the podium. Shannon Bahrke finished fifth, Michelle Roark sixth and Laurel Shanley ninth.

“It was a lot of fun. I finally did a two-720s run [i.e., a run with two double-spin jumps] and I’m pretty psyched,” Dawson said after the fourth win of his career, which came in soft snow on the steepest course of the tour. “On the top I threw a 720-mute grab and on the bottom I threw a kinda D-spin [off-axis, double spin]. I went way big [air] in semis and it was pretty big in finals, too. … The transition [into the bottom air] was sticky, though, so I wound up doing a different trick; I’d tried lots of back-fulls [back flips with a twist] at Deer Valley and I had a good feeling when I was in the air, and I got my feet down okay, so that was good. …

“It was very tricky because two days ago we trained on the course and it was almost boilerplate, and today we come out and it’s so warm and we had four or five inches of slush on the course. It was like summer skiing.”

Said head coach Donnie St. Pierre, “Toby was fantastic. He went huge up-top with a 720 and then he went to the moon on his bottom air. And I think it was even bigger in semis on the bottom. … He was hitting his jumps perfectly in training, and then he was patient and he landed ’em square in the competition. He was really incredible.”

The weekend visit calls for duals Sunday before the skiers move on to Naeba, Japan, for another moguls event Feb. 22.

Freestyle World Cup
Inawashiro, Japan
February 14, 2004
Men’s Moguls (12 make finals)
1. Toby Dawson, Vail, Colo., 25.45 points
2. Jim Schiman, Canada, 24.22
3. Jeremy Bloom, Loveland, Colo., 24.11
4. Luke Westerlund, 23.96
5. Laurent Niol, France, 22.89
Also:
10. Nate Roberts, Park City, Utah, 17.75
12. Dave Babic, Washington, Vt., 12.05
27. Ryan Riley, Steamboat Springs, Colo.
34. Travis Cabral, South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

Women’s Moguls (12 make finals)
1. Margaret Marbler, Austria, 25.24
2. Jennifer Heil, Canada, 25.16
3. Jillian Vogtli, Ellicotville, N.Y., 24.51
4. Aiko Uemura, Japan, 24.35
5. Shannon Bahrke, Tahoe City, Utah, 23.92
Also:
6. Michelle Roark, Denver, 23.36
9. Laurel Shanley, Squaw Valley, Calif., 22.57
17. Shelly Robertson, Reno, Nev.
20. Hannah Kearney, Norwich, Vt.
25. Emiko Torito, Denver